Product Description

Tim Pigott-Smith reads this gripping novelisation of a classic "Doctor Who" adventure. Forced off course by the Mandragora Helix, the TARDIS lands in the province of San Martino in fifteenth-century Italy. Here, the court astrologer, Hieronymous, has been taken over by the Mandragora energy-form - Hieronymous and the other members of his star-worshipping black magic cult will be used as a bridgehead, enabling the Mandragora Helix to conquer the Earth and rule it through their chosen servants. The Doctor has to defeat not only the Mandragora energy, but the evil schemes of the murderous Count Frederico who plans to usurp the place of his nephew, the rightful ruler of the province. Tim Pigott-Smith reads Philip Hinchcliffe's complete and unabridged novelisation, first published by 'Target Books' in 1977. '"BBC Audiobooks" has chosen well with its books and has taken the right approach with its readers...they benefit from new music and sound effects' - "Doctor Who Magazine".

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #345100 in Books
• Published on: 2009-04-09
• Format: Audiobook
• Original language: English
• Binding: Audio CD

Customer Reviews

Excellent reading of ordinary novelization
While it's true that this isn't the most scintillating novelization of the range it is well done overall with descriptive passages and flows along quite nicely. It's the reading of Tim Piggot-Smith that makes this a worthwhile buy. He does an excellent job of bringing the characters alive. His Doctor is quite interesting. Completely unlike Tom Baker but interesting nonetheless.

Tim does Tom
For what it's worth, I really recommend this. There have been some peerless releases in this excellent series recently (The Abominable Snowmen and, er ...And The Cybermen are probably the best yet), but this `lesser' effort has bags of charm, too. And much as I love Tom Baker's readings of fourth Doctor adventures (Brain of Morbius and Pyramids of Mars particularly), Tim Piggott-Smith's take on the cosmic Bohemian is a weird delight, too. The actor is a warm, assured reader overall, but `his' Doctor fascinates - as another reviewer noted, he isn't like Tom Baker at all... and yet there is a bit of him in there... Your listener almost ended up picturing another Doctor altogether, albeit one with a tart dash of Hartnell. A lot of the interest here lies in this being a less well-known fourth Doctor adventure, too, and while some of the plotting is yer perfunctory capture/escape/capture business, it's set in a colourful space and time, and nods back and fo(u)rth to all sorts of Who Greatest Hits. With warm spring sun in your face and your packed lunch at your back there are worse ways to spend your walk to work, you know...

Missing Tom
This audio book would have been so much better with Tom Baker. He has lifted a poor novelisation before with his great reading voice and delievery (Pyramid of Mars), however the same cannot be said for Tim Piggott-Smith who does a good job but is certainly not in the same WHO league as Tom. Disappointing. Let's hope we get another Tom Baker release soon!